[Categories with Low Orders]

Shouldn't Fiverr metrics be designed in such a way that it takes the average amount of orders for that category.  People who do 3 to 4 big orders a month will be heavily impacted by ratings but people who do a lot (like designers and writers) may not be impacted heavily by ratings since the volume of orders are more. Something I have noticed people who work in categories where the business is heavy may not get impacted by few bad ratings. I see several 1 star on various profiles yet their orders in queue continue to be high...

[A buyer scammed me and Fiverr is being conniving]

There is provision to issue partial refund, why didn't you consider that when he was not satisfied with the 2nd song?

[Reviews- The biggest flaw in the system?]

Fiverr can introduce a rating system which collects all ratings and reviews but does not show them by 5 stars, 4star. 3,2 or 1 star. 

Let it be as most recent /oldest/most favourable/most critical sorting only and let there be an average rating to the seller profile and seller gig.  The seller won't get to know which buyer left which no. of stars and let buyer also not know the star rating left by seller for him/her.

As sellers with more orders won't get to know who left which rating, they can rate buyers more genuinely.  This can obviously be apparent as a new seller starts his profile, but for gigs with more orders, a seller may not know exact star rating left by a buyer as average will be around 4.9.

This will reduce the case of retaliation by sellers and buyers. 

[First order, customer was happy with results/process, completed final order, they disappeared?]

Don't insist on getting review from clients, if they leave it themselves its well and good else leave it.  Also if the order autocompletes, just leave it like that, it's much better than reaching out to them and getting a below 5 star rating.

[Do not edit your gig unless you will lose your rank.]

Yes if your sales is going good and you make some changes to the gig, it often underperforms or worse case no orders thereafter.

[Why was Fiverr better few years ago than now?]

9 hours ago, meldawn9 said:

I've been here since early 2014. I used to make 5 figures on here. I think I might have hit $1200 this year. While it's possible there are more sellers, many of the good buyers have left for other platforms. Fiverr has a ton of bad reviews online, so it's scaring away the good people. The only orders I get today are from my longterm clients. I expect to retire from Fiverr by the Fall, but we'll see. I think I will miss Fiverr, but not the scammers, of course.

Why your prices are so low after so many years? I have seen writers charge $80- $100 for 500 words? 

[Is it just me? From $3k per month to $30...]

Is it allowed to outsource your work to outsiders as per fiverr policy?

[Downturn in orders]

you are not alone. orders are less now than ever

[Client requests a refund]

3 hours ago, alicesqc said:

Hello, everyone.
I have created a website for a client for $120 and performed SEO OnPage/SEO Backlinks optimization for an additional $70.

Throughout the project, I maintained active communication with the client, who initially expressed satisfaction with the website. The client requested some changes to the website, for which I needed access to Shopify App(Which I didn't have). Despite notifying the I am three times about the access requirement, they did not provide me with the necessary permissions. Additionally, the client stated that they would handle the product pages themselves. However, I completed all other requested changes.

Once the client was ultimately satisfied with the website and received all the requested modifications (excluding those that required access they didn't grant me despite multiple requests), they demanded a refund for both the SEO services and the website, claiming that I didn't fulfill their requirements. It's important to note that I didn't have access to perform the specific tasks they mentioned, and I had informed them about it beforehand (he needed adding reviews to products and including questions in the FAQ section).

In response, the client proceeded to make the changes themselves within 15 minutes and then claimed to have completed 50% of the website work on their own. Consequently, they demanded a refund for the website.

Despite my willingness to engage in a constructive dialogue, the client refuses to engage in a reasonable discussion and insists on a refund, threatening to leave a negative review unless their demands are met. I encouraged them to proceed with writing the review they believe I deserve, but they declined and continue to demand a refund.

As this is my first negative feedback experience, I am uncertain about the best course of action. Any advice on how to handle this situation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance
Alice

ы

dont go for cancellation,   take the money paid by him, you did what was asked,  refuse to accept cancellation,  its his trick to get work for free by doing the services himself. as long as you have proof you can get paid ,review no one can do anything.

[Important Update: Some canceled orders now qualify for buyer reviews]

15 hours ago, vickieito said:

I think this will give transparency about what is happening behind a lot of canceled orders.

Many sellers use cancelations to avoid confrontation, tough conversations, and stress and this will allow sellers to tackle the issues causing their canceled orders.

For example, I used to have cancelations due to my own stress until I eliminated unlimited revisions and extended the delivery times on my orders. I also had to learn how to stand up for myself by setting clear expectations and saying "no." It looks like Fiverr is pushing for sellers to increase the quality of their services, which will decrease cancelations and increase buyer satisfaction.

Not only will this push for sellers to improve communication during orders, but sellers will also be expected to respond professionally to any negative feedback that a buyer may leave on a canceled order. This is also a sales opportunity if used correctly. Like many buyers, I like to see how a seller will respond to a negative review because that will tell me more than any of the positive reviews that they get.

Many sellers use cancellations to avoid confrontation?  Last year I had a buyer who could never agree with what I had delivered and when I reached to support, their firsr response was to cancel the order if you are unable to work on the order any more. LOL

[Cancellation or bad review - which is preferable]

24 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

You don't know what people say in private reviews. That's the issue, we never know and our gig ends up pushed back for months. Plus, there are people that just place an order and then mark as complete without saying anything. Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what those people say when they are asked by Fiverr to privately rate.. plus add to that people that share a random review just to get past this and move on. I had a person that gave me the worst possible number of stars because it was 12 AM and they wanted to go to sleep. His written review was positive and great, but if he left random stars publicly I can only imagine what they left privately.

The bottom line, private reviews, especially those from first time buyers matter. And don't think that if all your public reviews are great, that means private reviews are great. I think Vickie said it, only a few people on the platform have excellent private reviews, and those most likely don't have a ton of sales. The more people you deal with, the higher the chances of having a bad private review. But it is what it is...

Add to that the HUGE competition and you can see why people are pushed back. I am dealing with the same thing, I receive a small push here and there, but most of the time I end up in the back no getting any exposure. And it's hard to say because aside from a 3  star  review that I had close to 3 months ago (from a person that just randomly ordered without asking if I can help), every review I got was excellent. It is what it is.. At this point all we can do is to ensure we deliver our best.

And from my perspective, raising prices and having less, but more expensive orders can diminish the issue. HOWEVER, if you end up with a bad private review from these more expensive orders, that really pushes you back for months..

yes, I understand that but what I observed in my case was the orders stopping post a cancellation. and quite visible that the algorithm has pushed me back due to that, if without the cancellation the orders stopped one could understand it is the private reviews.  Last year a buyer did chargeback and I faced similar issue of orders stopping post that.  In fact, two of the worst months was immediately post the chargeback and right now post cancellation.  Say I was having 50 orders average pm till that chargeback,  the next 3 months it was just 30 average. For no fault of mine, orders stopped 

[Cancellation or bad review - which is preferable]

34 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

Fiverr doesn't care about your old performance. They want you to be consistent, hence the reason they want you to have great performance within the last 2-3 months. If not, they push you back and they allow people with good performance at the front of the pack.

You can have any income goals you want, but Fiverr can't guarantee anything. If people were happy with your service in the past but less happy now, they care about current performance and that's what matters to them the most. You may want to find another source of income, because putting all your eggs in a single basket is not ok if the basket ends up broken in the end. 

I've been here for 10 years and honestly it does feel that Fiverr can be a harsh environment at times, especially with this new focus on the first time buyers. But as I said, it's a good idea to find multiple income sources. I am dealing with a similar problem, Fiverr income was abysmal the past few months. We need to adapt to the platform's changes and hopefully deliver great results!

Hi there, just one cancellation in about 15 months  is that not consistent enough? and yes, there may have been bad private reviews in the interim, but I have especially noticed the cancellation seems to affect the order flow the most. So the income performance everything has been going good last 18 months and a cancellation boom everything drops. I had a similar experience in 2020 as well that cut my income to half than what I was making for 7 to 8 months then..

[Cancellation or bad review - which is preferable]

you setup a $2000 pm income then one cancellation then you are out of income for months ...shouldn't fiverr care more about its sellers especially who do good sales? Shouldn't metrics be as per seller level and how much income they have generated?  I personally feel level 2 sellers with atleast 5 years should not be affected by cancellations . it makes no sense. 

[Cancellation or bad review - which is preferable]

You know a client is not happy with the work,  do you prefer to refund or accept bad rating review? Which least affects your metrics.  Personally I have felt just one cancellation often brings down sales for several months?  why it has to be this way? we refund and still get hurt?  It's high time metrics are changed realistically. You do so well and one cancellation makes you bad?

[Buyer did not submit requirements]

Buyer did not submit a requirement and despite asking 3 times in last 2 days, is unresponsive.

Asked cs to cancel the order.. Customer support asks me to extend delivery date. Why should I extend for no fault of mine?

My order would go late if buyer does not respond to the extension but basically for the fault of buyer why does CS ask me to extend the delivery?

If buyer sees that the delivery after extension was late than originally promised, they might leave a bad rating. 

 

[Sharing Gigs to friends, followers]

• To prevent any misuse of our Feedback system, all feedback reviews must come from legitimate sales executed exclusively through the Fiverr platform from users within our Community. Purchases arranged, determined to artificially enhance Seller ratings, or to abuse the Fiverr platform with purchases from additional accounts, will result in a permanent suspension of all related accounts.

I wonder if this terms of service is still valid.

[Sharing Gigs to friends, followers]

You didn't get me. I am asking, say I get an order. Often the person gives their name or has their username as their own name. So if I find them on some other social media, can I work with them? what does fiverr terms say about that? I haven't really explored social media  nor have a presence. So excuse me if its silly. I am not redirecting them. I am just finding them myself on social media. I have found so many popular writers from here on sm. So was curious.

[Sharing Gigs to friends, followers]

and what about finding your buyers outside Fiverr? is that allowed? With today's social media you can find anyone pretty easily. 

[Sharing Gigs to friends, followers]

Conversely, if your friend or follower didn't like your work, you still have an ongoing outside contact with them to modify things and that's a lot of freedom. Will you still agree if your follower says in your social media inbox that your work is poor and that he will rate you bad? No, 99.9 percent will do something to modify that.

But with fiverr buyers that's not the case. They can still rate you bad despite n number of revisions. So getting a 5 star from fiver buyer and social media buyer is very different, that makes a huge difference in one's profile and impressions, private reviews etc  So I am not really tricking fiverr, fiverr itself is reducing the genuineness of the platform.

But yeah thank you for responding.

[Sharing Gigs to friends, followers]

Once you bring someone outside, there is no authenticity to the review system and seller's metrics.  How will there be an honest review by your friend or follower? You can basically solicit them to give good reviews when they contact you in social media and there the entire purpose of building a honest platform fails.

[Sharing Gigs to friends, followers]

So Fiverr basically gets money but don't care about work and reviews.

2 minutes ago, ozan_erdi said:

Besides if they are your friends they would have liked what you have done for them anyhow because you would have done a good job. Right?

Exactly, and that's not good. When a lot of sellers put hard work and earn their reviews, Fiverr encourages you to bring your other clients to make them more popular and earn. we pay 20 % only for the clients they bring. So it is not right that they encourage basically made up orders. 

[Sharing Gigs to friends, followers]

ok. that is one valid point .

..And when you share gigs, you can always talk with them in that medium to give you the review you want. Then what is this point of strict metrics, everything being so strict. The whole point was to make the marketplace genuine and trustworthy.

Ok say you bought your follower from social media to fiverr.  Something goes off. What if the buyer reports that you pressured them to give a good review through the social media even though you didn't?  Now fiverr doesn't know you bought them through social media because they still registered as new buyer.

[Sharing Gigs to friends, followers]

well If you have so many followers, why will you have to route them through fiverr in an age where there are so many payment methods available? I do some business outside but I don't see any incentive to route them through fiverr. If you found someone yourself for a big enough order, why will you share the commission here unnecessarily. I still don't get the point of sharing gigs. 

 

[Sharing Gigs to friends, followers]

But even then, it's not necessary that a buyer should buy from so many different sellers or different type of services to be a genuine reviewer. Some genuine buyers do come back every now and then for same service from same seller and only for that.

So If am searching for a buyer and that shows 10 reviews from a particular seller, I still cannot figure if it is an organic buyer from fiverr or from the seller's social circle.

[Sharing Gigs to friends, followers]

thanks for that, didn't know of such a thing. was searching buyers in search bar.